San Jose, Costa Rica...I am back in the modern western world ... a place where you can flush the toilet paper, get a hot shower (my first since leaving El Salvador on June 13, not that I'm keeping track or anything) and all the choices of fast food restaurants are here. The streets are full of people shopping for American style clothes, traffic jams, pollution, prostitutes, and everything else a modern city offers. I also think the police are a little dodgy here too.
My buddy from England and I were stopped on the street the other night and had our pockets searched for marijuana and cocaine and asked for our passports, which we didn't have . This conveniently happened just one block after some prostitutes harassed us and perhaps tried to slip something into our pockets. Hmmm? In the end, the police shook our hands and wished a us a good evening, however, they must have been disappointed they couldn't walk away with a little bribe money.
Well, like most capital cities anywhere, one of the best things you can do is leave. After a 4 hour bus ride, I arrived with some other traveling friends in Puerto Viejo and one of the coolest hostels ever called Rocking J´s. It´s a little on the noisy side of town as the crashing waves of the Caribbean wash ashore, perhaps keeping me awake for an extra 30 seconds each night. I haven´t accomplished much of anything in the last couple days except for some swimming, laying around the beach, and finishing a book. It sounds awful when I think of the frigid temperatures I am missing that must be settling in back home. The evenings have been a blast as there seems to be a huge group of us here that have all met somewhere before and the the atmosphere makes for a great "instant reunion soup" ... just add beer. Pictures will have to wait for this entry as the Internet has been terribly slow here.... next stop, Panama!